Video Synopsis and Indexing ∗

The amount of captured video is growing with the increased numbers of video cameras, especially the increase of millions of surveillance cameras that operate 24 hours a day. Since video browsing and retrieval is time consuming, most captured video is never watched or examined. Video synopsis is an effective tool for browsing and indexing such video. It provides a short video representation, while preserving the essential activities in the original video. The activity in the video is condensed into a shorter period by simultaneously showing multiple activities, even when they originally occurred at different times. The synopsis video is also an index into the original video by pointing to the original time of each activity. Video Synopsis can be applied to create a synopsis of an endless video streams, as generated by webcams and by surveillance cameras. It can address queries like “Show in one minute the synopsis of this camera broadcast during the past day”. This process includes two major phases: (i) An online conversion of the endless video stream into a database of objects and activities (rather than frames). (ii) A response phase, generating the video synopsis as a response to the user’s query.